The future of OLED is bright, but when it starts to shine and how long it lasts, it looks unclear.

Many people think that OLED will be the technology of choice for smartphone screens in the future, because it displays more clear images and saves power.

At the end of last year, Apple was preparing to launch the iPhone X with its OLED screen. Samsung-based suppliers followed suit and increased OLED production capacity on a large scale.

Now that the problem has arisen, OLED seems to be in excess supply, and prices may fall. The iPhone X did not sell as well as Samsung expected, but Samsung itself is the largest OLED supplier, and people familiar with the matter said Samsung’s shipments to Apple may be only half.

Recently, DSCC forecasted spending on display equipment, saying that OLED spending in 2018 is expected to decline by 28% from 2017 to US$10.8 billion (LCD spending during the same period will increase by 22% to US$11.4 billion). In 2018, China's display equipment manufacturers will occupy 90% of the total spending on related equipment.

OLED spending will decline by 31% to US$7.4 billion in 2019 (LCD spending is expected to decline by 32% over the same period). Chinese display equipment manufacturers will still be leading in terms of spending (77% of the market).

Looking ahead, LCD spending is expected to continue to decline, but DSCC believes that as OLEDs begin to launch into new markets such as tablet PCs, notebook PCs and automotive applications, they will generate additional strong demand for OLED production capacity, which in turn will drive OLED spending to rebound in 2020.